The Garden Minute: Compost, Colour & Chelsea Flower Show

☀️ Good morning Gardeners. Here's a round up of gardenspiration to get you through to the end of the week.

May 13, 2025

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✂️🌱 Curated Cuttings

A round-up of tips, tricks and news snippets on all things garden-related.

👩‍🌾 How gardening can help you live better for longer

🌺 5 choices a garden expert says will bring movement and texture to your container garden

🌸 Five plants to add to shady gardens to bring 'burst of colour' without sun

🦋 7 hidden butterflies and moths to spot in No Mow May garden

🌻 Gardening expert warns of common mistake people make when planting sunflowers

🪴 ‘The leaves fall off – but I think that’s normal’: the houseplants you just can’t kill

🍌 Gardeners urged to leave part of a banana in their gardens

☕ The Long Read (or listen … or watch)

Down tools, grab a brew and get lost in a long read on your break

On compost

Fraser MacDonald waxes lyrical about the magic of composting for the London Review of Books. He surveys various methods and reveals what goes into his compost pile, which includes everything seaweed to beard shavings. In looking at his heap, he sees it as a slightly messy response to the “dispiriting cleanness of modern life,” one full of one-use wet wipes and sanitizers, a pile which “stands in productive contrast to domestic disorder.”

Spotlight on some of the gardening creators we’re loving this week

Jamie Watton- @nettlesandpettles

For those eager to delve deeper into the gardening world beyond the surface, let us introduce you to Jamie Watton. Known as Nettles and Pettles on Instagram, Jamie shares his passion for soil ecology, wild plants and fungi explaining why you should plant certain plants and how the way you grow certain things can shift their purpose.